What Makes a Title Well-Crafted?: A Syntactic Analysis of Literature Research Articles

Abstract

Titles play a crucial role in attracting readers and contributing to the visibility and impact of research. Studies have been conducted to analyze the syntactical elements of research article titles across various academic fields; however, few studies have specifically addressed the syntactic features in SINTA-indexed literature research article (SILRA) titles. This research aims to investigate the linguistic structures of SILRA titles. This qualitative research collected RA titles from literature journals across SINTA ranks. In order to analyze the syntactic features of these titles, NVivo software was employed. Employing Cheng et al.’s (2012) framework, we focused on identifying the use of nominal (noun-based), compound (multi-part), and other structures such as verb-ing forms and full sentences. We observed that SILRA, which is published in lower-ranked journals, embraces content-focused use of simple noun phrases. Higher-ranked journals also use nominal titles with more variety and complexity, reflecting a higher academic research standard. The study concludes that while SILRA journals prioritize straightforward titles, as shown with nominal structured titles, adopting more complex, internationally recognized title structures, especially compound titles, is necessary to improve visibility and citation rates.